Wagoner eager to get GM on track

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Guest Josh

For the first time in its history, General Motors Corp. is now selling more cars and trucks in other countries than it does in the United States, GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told the Free Press.

This historic shift reflects both GM's dwindling share of the mature U.S. market and its promising position in China and other fast-growing Asian economies.

But despite strong sales growth overseas, Wagoner stressed that GM's future still depends largely on whether he can reverse huge losses in the North American auto market, where GM has lost $4.8 billion so far this year, triggering a plunge in its stock price and downgrades of its debt ratings to junk status.

"Our fate is going to be determined in the next three to five years on getting this business in the U.S. turned around and profitable," he said Wednesday during an hour-long interview in his 39th-floor office at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters.

"That's what's going to decide how good GM is going to be. And then I think, over time, it's going to be how well we use our global resources to take advantage of where there's growth," he said, two days after announcing plans to cut 30,000 jobs and halt production at 10 U.S. plants.

Wagoner, 52, exuded energy and confidence about GM's turnaround effort, while admitting that he'd prefer not to be digging the company's U.S. operations out of a financial ditch

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Walsh correctly points out Wagoner has been at the top for 13 years. Isn't that long enough to assign accountability? He has to go.

[post="48801"][/post]

I read an artical recently, that said, whether he is doing a bad job or not, he needs to go to signal a huge change for the company... his removal would appear as a turning point, even though he might be doing good things now or might be doing bad things, i will never no...

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Guest buickman

GENERAL WATCH NEWS
Imagine millions of autos across America with Red Tags in the windows. Now imagine those vehicles covered with snow and ice to the point that no one can read them anyway. Now imagine who has the printing contract with GM for all the utterly useless banners and tags? How about money wasted in shipping? How about the millions wasted on idiotic commercials?
I could go on but this gives you and idea of how ineffective marketing is killing GM. Return to Greatness would immediately save money and increase sales. That is how profit is made.
All we need is for Mr Wagoner to pick up the phone and tell Mr LaNeve to implement The Plan immediately. Hate to sound simplistic, but fixing GM would really be that easy.

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GENERAL WATCH NEWS
Imagine millions of autos across America with Red Tags in the windows. Now imagine those vehicles covered with snow and ice to the point that no one can read them anyway. Now imagine who has the printing contract with GM for all the utterly useless banners and tags? How about money wasted in shipping? How about the millions wasted on idiotic commercials?

I could go on but this gives you and idea of how ineffective marketing is killing GM. Return to Greatness would immediately save money and increase sales. That is how profit is made.

All we need is for Mr Wagoner to pick up the phone and tell Mr LaNeve to implement The Plan immediately. Hate to sound simplistic, but fixing GM would really be that easy.

[post="49083"][/post]

I am game...what is Return to Greatness?

You made an obviously good point with the Red Tag campaign. I wonder who came up with that idea.

I also wonder if GM has considered dropping its advertising company in favor of the advertising firm that does Toyota's ads. I mean really, GM hasn't had a decent campaign since Bob Segar's 'Like a Rock' aired....and that was decades ago.

Furthermore, it doesn't seem like GM has a real marketing and advertising strategy at all. I've never seen a commercial on TV for the GTO, nor the Solstice or the Cobalt. Toyota gets a new model, and you see TV ads all over the place. What gives? Toyota advertises cars that they don't even have to market yet. And when Plymouth came out with the Neon, one couldn't change the TV channel without seeing the "Hi Car" commercial. Cobalt could benefit from something like this. I haven't seen an HHR commercial either.

One could argue that I am just not looking at the right TV channels, but that doesn't explain why I am seeing other car manufactures' ads on those channels. There isn't a Chevy commercial that I can remember, yet I could pull from memory at ease, the new cool Civic commercial.

Its as if GM is *TRYING* to fail.

p.s. I just remembered a Chevy commercial. Its for the new Impala. There's some computer generated, silver looking animals chasing the car, trying to catch up to it as the woman driver steps on the accellerator. Is this a scene from a thriller movie, or a car ad? I can't tell.

And then, they don't pronounce the name of the car correctly. At least not here on the west coast. They pronounce the first "a" with a short sound, as in the name Sam. I've always heard Impala pronounced with the first "a" having an "ah" sound.

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Thank you for the link. It is a good read for many reasons, not least of which, is the passion that is behind it.

I think your marketing comment is dead on. Even a mediocre car can be marketed and sold. Just look at Hyundai and Kia. Marketing sold the vehicles, and next thing ya know, they have enough money to start building quality cars. Just a few years after they were laughed at, they are making good cars and selling well.

I am not a qualified business leader, nor a sales person. Just a car enthusiasts, and particularly a GM one. The steps seem mostly obvious, which makes it appalling that GM isn't actually doing them as routine business. I particularly liked 7 and 8.

What your plan seems to hinge on is increasing/restoring employee pride and customer trust. I find that interesting because there is no real mention of product in the steps - other than new models every fall. So my question is, do you believe that restoring GM to the point of being a respectable company in the eyes of its employees and customers is enough?

I am not doubting, just considering the thought. It also seems that the return to greatness is just a start, in a long process. Once the company is restored to a level of excellence as a company, then and only then can they make the most of designing and marketing a good product. In other words, it doesn't do much good for GM to have a hit model line up, if their employees and customers are disgusted with them. And it further hinders any success if they cannot even market the product.

One of the other things that I'd like to see addressed is GM's aging demographic. How are they going to get new, emerging customers. Loyal GM fans will eventually die out.

Again, I am no CEO. There are people on this board who know far more than I do. But even so, I like the plan. At least its a plan. I have the feeling that Wagoner is just trying to make numbers add up. That's not a plan...its more of an appeal to shareholders. Thanks again for the read and passion. Hopefully people like yourself will help get the behemoth turned in the right direction.

So GM is selling 4.5 million vehicles this year as opposed to 4.7 million last year??

Doesn't seem like that big of a difference to me? (Is it significant?) Wouldn't that just account for falling SUV sales because of the fuel crunch and feasibly had the fuel spike not occured wouldn't GM be right on track?

He has therefore taken plenty of flack from financial analysts and media for being part of the crew that steered GM into the financial ditch.

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As for not seeing any Solstics or Cobalt commercials, the problem is simply that GM is spread too thin. When Toyota launches a new Corolla that is the only vehicle they are launching and they hammer the hell out of it.
In this market, I see Pursuit and Torrent commericals on TV all the time, but the only Chevy they are pushing is the Impala. It is like the Cobalt and Equinox are forgotten. The Impala ads are pretty cool, but GM just can't push 80 some odd models, especially when (in this market) they are only selling the same number of vehicles as Toyota is with 22 models (including Lexus).
GM cannot support this many brands with 16% market share. It is ludicrous. Gone are the days when a confused customer will wander from GM dealer to GM dealer, trying to figure out who sells the Vibe. They will just go and buy a Matrix because ALL Toyota stores sell that one.
Pitting Pontiac dealers against Chevrolet dealers may have worked when GM had 40% market share, but at 16% it is tantamount to suicide.